{"id":27836,"date":"2022-10-02T17:21:16","date_gmt":"2022-10-02T16:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/?p=27836"},"modified":"2022-10-02T17:21:16","modified_gmt":"2022-10-02T16:21:16","slug":"michael-hughes-and-calisto-blue-kick-off-autumn-met-2022-with-a-win-in-the-csi2-1-45m-grand-prix-presented-by-dammann-reitplatz-u-sportplatzbau-gmbh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/michael-hughes-and-calisto-blue-kick-off-autumn-met-2022-with-a-win-in-the-csi2-1-45m-grand-prix-presented-by-dammann-reitplatz-u-sportplatzbau-gmbh\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Hughes and Calisto Blue kick off Autumn MET 2022 with a win in the CSI2* 1.45m Grand Prix presented by Dammann Reitplatz- u. Sportplatzbau GmbH"},"content":{"rendered":"

The autumn edition of the 2022 Mediterranean Equestrian Tour kicked off this week at Centro Ecuestre Oliva Nova in Spain. The week concluded with an American victory in Sunday\u2019s CSI2* 1.45m Grand Prix presented by Dammann Reitplatz- u. Sportplatzbau GmbH, with Michael Hughes (USA) and Calisto Blue (Chacco-Blue x Con Air) taking the top honours.<\/span><\/p>\n

A total of 32 horse-and-rider-combinations were at start in Sunday\u2019s 1.45m Grand Prix, where the course set by Gerard Lachat (SUI) counted 13 obstacles and 15 jumping efforts. Twelve pairs cleared the first-round track and joined the deciding jump-off, where two rollbacks rewarded the tightest turns,\u00a0followed\u00a0by\u00a0a long canter to the last. First out in the jump-off, Switzerland\u2019s Evelyne Bussmann on Virtuoso Semilly (Diamant de Semilly x Hym d\u2019Isigny) took advantage of her horse\u2019s huge canter and nailed the rollback to the penultimate fence, stopping the clock on 37.75 \u2013 which in the end was good enough to finish third.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Until Hughes and Calisto Blue entered the ring as third last to go in the jump-off, it was Hughes\u2019 Stephex Stables-colleague Kendra Claricia Brinkop (GER) and Takotak Z (Telstar de La Pomme x Darco) that held the lead though, after crossing the finish line in 36.86 seconds. However, with the tightest of turns, Hughes\u2019 round proved extremely effective and with a time of 36.02 seconds he was unbeatable.\u00a0\u201cI went late enough in the jump-off, and actually watching it, I did not think it was a great jump-off for us, as Calisto Blue does not have the biggest step \u2013 so I thought it was going to be a little bit difficult,\u201d Hughes told. \u201cI watched Kendra go and there wasn\u2019t really much else to do, so I just tried to copy her track and hoped that my horse would be a bit quicker \u2013 and he was.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor the two of us, we really get along and the horses that don\u2019t work for one, might work for the other, so it is great actually,\u201d Hughes continued to speak about the\u00a0friendship and rivalry between him and his Stephex Stables-teammate Kendra Claricia Brinkop.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u201cHe is amazing,\u201d Hughes said about his horse Calisto Blue, that\u00a0previously has been hugely successful with Stephex rider Daniel Deusser in the saddle. \u201cIt took a little while to figure him out, but now that I have, it feels like he can\u2019t have a pole down; he is so careful and he is so fast. It is such a nice feeling riding a horse like him. Today is probably the fastest I have ever gone on him!\u201d the happy winner smiled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love coming to Oliva,\u201d Hughes said about the MET-venue. \u201cI think it is great for the horses, both in the beginning of the year and at the end of the year. Right now, it is great, as I have a lot of eight- and nine-year-old horses, so it is perfect for them to step up here. We love coming to Oliva every year.”<\/p>\n

Melanie Cloarec (FRA) on Fais Toi Belle du Seigneur Pleville (Baltik Sitte x Ferme du Seigneur) took the fourth place and Ben Maher (GBR) on Ici (Douglas x Lux Z) placed fifth in today\u2019s Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

The Autumn MET 2022 continues next week and the first part consisting of\u00a0three consecutive weeks of competition runs all the way until October 16th, followed by MET II that starts on October 25th\u00a0and MET III that runs from November 22nd\u00a0to December 12th. For more information, visit\u00a0metoliva.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click here for full results.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Copyright \u00a9 2022 Mediterranean Equestrian Tour.\u00a0All rights reserved.<\/em><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The autumn edition of the 2022 Mediterranean Equestrian Tour kicked off this week at Centro Ecuestre Oliva Nova in Spain. The week concluded with an American victory in Sunday\u2019s CSI2* 1.45m Grand Prix presented by Dammann Reitplatz- u. Sportplatzbau GmbH, with Michael Hughes (USA) and Calisto Blue (Chacco-Blue x Con Air) taking the top honours….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autumn-met-2022-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27837,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27836\/revisions\/27837"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/metoliva.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}